“The Man” and I have been stationary since “The Stowaway” started walking. Were we surprised when I discovered I was pregnant in 2020. COVID was in full-swing, and we were headed to Florida for the first time in over a year.
We’d been in California when COVID broke out. We had spent the winter in Parker Dam. Where the Colorado River was my backyard and there was so much to explore …or not explore.
Echo Lodge Resort was GORGEOUS, we didn’t have to go anywhere. The red canyon walls and blue-green river were AH-MAZING. Having made many friends, we were eager to return, so before leaving we reserved a spot for the following winter.
Of course, a worldwide PANDEMIC would break out. THE WEEK WE LEAVE.
We planned on spending the summer in the pacific northwest and plotted a route north, staying near San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Intending to see historic landmarks and eat at iconic restaurants along the way.
We had just made it to Silver Strand State Beach when Governor Newsome began restricting public gatherings. The restrictions increased as we reached Malibu and by the time we made it to Half Moon Bay, everything was closed.
Man… was I upset, anxious and freaking out. There was a pandemic, and we are on the wrong coast, so extremely far from home.
But also, I had PLANS. I wanted to see Balboa Park and its museums, Griffith Park’s Observatory with its view of the Hollywood Sign, Golden Gate’s Botanical and Japanese Tea gardens… and there were SO many restaurants that I wanted to sample.
Still do, in fact… Someday.
ANY way, we eventually ended up in Illinois, waiting on some parts for our Crusader.
Which is how we discovered Crazy Horse Campground. OH MY GOD! What a pretty piece of property with SO much potential. The Man and I aren’t the only full-time RVers to have discovered Crazy Horse.
Lyn and Kevin Hawkins have been traveling the country since 2020.
After meeting in Show Low, Arizona, they moved to Phoenix and got married. Eventually, they ended up in Idaho where Lyn worked in dietary management and Kevin, who’d been a paramedic in Arizona, went to back to school and studied nursing,
When COVID broke out, he took their RV and spent the next year working as a travel nurse. They had bought the camper for the family to use but only managed to camp in it twice before Kevin started traveling for work.
Lyn, who stayed behind with their daughter, eventually issued an ultimatum, “you either find a job at home or we buy a bigger camper and all start traveling,” it is now three years later, and they’ve been, “on the road ever since.”
They upgraded their camper to a toy hauler, created a space for their teenage daughter, and grabbed their dogs. The Hawkins have now been from Oregon to Maine and from South Dakota to Texas, “we have seen so much of the country that we never would have, had we not started traveling.”
One of Lyn’s favorite places is the Oregon Coast, they been multiple times, “We had to go to Astoria, because I’m a big Goonies fan …I had to go see Haystack Rock and Cannon Beach… the house and the jail.”
During a trip to Colorado, they visited the hotel from The Shining (1980). “So, you’re at the base and then you take the road up and it goes so far up that there’s no more trees, they stop growing at that elevation and finally at the top was the lodge, it was in the middle of summer, but it was still snowing, everything was frozen. I’m walking around in a T-shirt and I’m like, it’s not even cold. It was crazy elevation. It was weird, but it was awesome.”
Until they started traveling, Kevin and Lyn had never been farther east than South Dakota.
They were surprised by how different each side of the country is from the other, “it’s way different, like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, it’s way different, and not just accents. it’s everything, but it’s …it’s been great. We’ve had a lot of fun seeing a lot of things. Our daughter is fifteen and she’s seen way more than I’d seen at her age.”
Before coming to Illinois, they camped at Tohickon Campground in Pennsylvania. Kevin remarked that it was one of the more challenging places to travel, “The covered bridges and the windy, narrow, narrow, old roads were probably the worst in Pennsylvania.”
“I love new places. I get bored really easy. So, I love going to new places like every 13 months. So, I’ll say to Lyn, Let’s go somewhere new… “
“Where are we going next?”
“Throw a dart. That’s where we’ll go.”
THE CAMPER 